WASHINGTON (AP) - U.S. military officials say no guard at the Guantanamo Bay prison for terror suspects flushed a detainee's Quran down the toilet, but they disclosed that a Muslim holy book was splashed with urine. In other newly disclosed incidents, a detainee's Quran was deliberately kicked and another's was stepped on.

On March 25, a detainee complained to guards that "urine came through an air vent" and splashed on him and his Quran. A guard admitted he was at fault, but a report released Friday evening offering new details about Quran mishandling incidents did not make clear whether the guard intended the result.

In another confirmed incident, water balloons thrown by prison guards caused an unspecified number of Qurans to get wet, and in a confirmed but ambiguous case, a two-word obscenity was written in English on the inside cover of a Quran.

The findings, released after normal business hours Friday evening and after the major TV networks had aired their evening news programs, are among the results of an investigation last month by Brig. Gen. Jay Hood, the commander of the detention center in Cuba. A Newsweek magazine report - later retracted - that a U.S. soldier had flushed one Guantanamo Bay detainee's Quran down a toilet triggered the investigation.

The story stirred worldwide controversy, and the Bush administration blamed it for deadly demonstrations in Afghanistan.

Hood said in a written statement released with the new details that his investigation "revealed a consistent, documented policy of respectful handling of the Quran dating back almost 2 1/2 years."

Lawrence Di Rita, chief spokesman for Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, did not address the confirmed incidents of mishandling the Muslim holy book. Reached while traveling with Rumsfeld in Asia, he said U.S. Southern Command policy calls for "serious, respectful and appropriate" handling of the Quran.

"The Hood inquiry would appear to affirm that policy," Di Rita said.

Hood said that of nine mishandling cases that were studied in detail by reviewing thousands of pages of written records, five were confirmed. He could not determine conclusively whether the other four took place.

In one of the unconfirmed cases, a detainee in April 2003 complained to FBI and other interrogators that guards "constantly defile the Quran." The detainee alleged that in one instance a female military guard threw a Quran into a bag of wet towels to anger another detainee, and he also alleged that another guard said the Quran belonged in the toilet and that guards were ordered to do these things.

Hood said he found no other record of this detainee mentioning any Quran mishandling. The detainee has since been released.

In the March incident, as described in the report, the guard had left his observation post to go outside to urinate. The wind blew his urine through an air vent into the cell block. The guard's supervisor reprimanded him and assigned him to gate guard duty, where he had no contact with detainees, for the rest of his assignment at Guantanamo Bay.

In another of the confirmed cases, a contract interrogator stepped on a detainee's Quran in July 2003 and then apologized. "The interrogator was later terminated for a pattern of unacceptable behavior, an inability to follow direct guidance and poor leadership," the Hood report said.

Hood also said his investigation found 15 cases of detainees mishandling their own Qurans. "These included using a Quran as a pillow, ripping pages out of the Quran, attempting to flush a Quran down the toilet and urinating on the Quran," Hood's report said. It offered no possible explanation for the detainees' motives.

In the most recent of those 15 cases, a detainee on Feb. 18 allegedly ripped up his Quran and handed it to a guard, stating that he had given up on being a Muslim. Several guards witnessed this, Hood reported.

Last week, Hood disclosed he had confirmed five cases of mishandling of the Quran, but he refused to provide details. Allegations of Quran desecration at Guantanamo Bay have led to anti-American passions in many Muslim nations, although Pentagon officials have insisted that the problems were relatively minor and that U.S. commanders have gone to great lengths to enable detainees to practice their religion in captivity.

Hood said last week he found no credible evidence that a Quran was ever flushed down a toilet. He said a prisoner who was reported to have complained to an FBI agent in 2002 that a military guard threw a Quran in the toilet has since told Hood's investigators that he never witnessed any form of Quran desecration.

Other prisoners who were returned to their home countries after serving time at Guantanamo Bay as terror suspects have alleged Quran desecration by U.S. guards, and some have said a Quran was placed in a toilet.

There are about 540 detainees at Guantanamo Bay. Some have been there more than three years without being charged with a crime. Most were captured on the battlefields of Afghanistan in 2001 and 2002 and were sent to Guantanamo Bay in hope of extracting useful intelligence about the al-Qaida terrorist network.

Why do arrested terrorists get Korans in jail anyway? If I were plotting and scheming against Saudi or Iran and they caught me and threw me in one of their prisons, I'm sure I wouldn't get a bible, not even a desecrated one.

3
posted on 06/04/2005 2:21:01 AM PDT
by jaykay
(Those who live in glass houses have the best view.)

As far as the endless PC crap, that is simply the exact same agenda that the "agents for change" have been, and will continue to, trumpet as they try their hardest to destroy this country and it's institutions, and all neatly done by the America Communist Lawyer's Union, international labor unions, the DNC, and the MSM.

9
posted on 06/04/2005 2:46:05 AM PDT
by bill1952
("All that we do is done with an eye towards something else.")

In the other news of the day...Islamic followers behead Non Muslims, burn down Churches and Temples, Rape and kill women for disobeying Islamic law, arrest non Muslims for carrying Bibles, blow up innocent people for being too Western...and now the weather...

11
posted on 06/04/2005 2:50:28 AM PDT
by Dallas59
(" I have a great team that is going to beat George W. Bush" John Kerry -2004)

A U.S. military investigation into the mishandling of the Muslim holy book at the Guantanamo Bay prison for suspected terrorists has determined that detainees -- not U.S. soldiers -- attempted to flush the Quran down the toilet there.

-SNIP-

In one incident, on February 23, 2004, the report said a guard saw a "detainee place two Qurans in his toilet and state he no longer cared about the Quran or his religion.

Five minutes later, after the detainee retrieved the Qurans, he ripped several pages out of one Quran and threw the pages on the floor. Then, he placed both Qurans on the sink."

Another time, on January 19, 2005, a detainee "tore up his Quran and tried to flush it down the toilet. Four guards witnessed the incident," the report said.

The report also cited 12 other incidents by detainees, including one who used his Quran as a pillow, another who urinated on his holy book and several who ripped pages from the Quran.

Capt. Jeff Weir, an Army spokesman at the facility, told CNN in a phone interview that the detainees were typically trying to stage some form of protest when they mishandled the Quran.

Hood said investigators reviewed more than 30,000 documents in an exhaustive probe.

"The inquiry found no credible evidence that a member of the Joint Task Force at Guantanamo Bay ever flushed a Quran down a toilet. This matter is considered closed," the report said.

It said the U.S. military has issued more than 1,600 copies of the Quran since January 2002, conducted more than 28,000 interrogations and carried out thousands of "cell moves."

"Mishandling a Quran at Guantanamo Bay is a rare occurrence," Hood said. "Mishandling of a Quran here is never condoned."

The media is still smarting from the damage and fallout over the Newsweak debacle. The MSM has pulled out all the stops to attempt to vindicate their shamed brethren and to attack the military and the Unitied States--no matter what the cost. Their hands were bloodied by this scandal, and they don't like it one bit. They needed to turn the blame around, and fast.

The stories last week that the military "confirmed abuse and desecration of the Koran" were laughable. According to Muslims, the Koran can be "desecrated" by an infidel looking at the book in a certain way, standing over the Koran, pointing the bottom sole of your shoe towards it, or touching it with the left hand.

If this were WW II, we would arrest these people in the MSM and deal with them as we did Tokyo Rose and Lord Haw Haw.

Couldn't agree more. I believe that it only confirms that the true agenda of the MSM is to change America, and the world, into a Socialist/Communist society, or the left would also be saying the exact same things that you posted.

BTW, one of the very first things that I taught my 2 year old son to do was "show em the foot."

That trick always gets a laugh, but interestingly, nobody has yet questioned me as to why he was taught it.

14
posted on 06/04/2005 3:16:09 AM PDT
by bill1952
("All that we do is done with an eye towards something else.")

BTW, one of the very first things that I taught my 2 year old son to do was "show em the foot."

When he gets old enough to shave, teach him that plucking the ends of his mustache around a Muslim will drive them to fits of hysteria. I don't know why, but doing that is akin to massaging his grandmother.

These folks need to get a grip,it's a book,paper pages between hard back covers.The MSM and the democrats have been pissing on the bible every day for at least the last 50 years,where is the outrage,where is congressman conyers

(1) The Koran is referred to a "Muslim holy book" in at least two places. When was the last time the MSM called the Bible a " Christian holy book"?

(2) All of a sudden it's relevant that information is released on a Friday after the MSM has closed up shop. When the Clinton administration did their usual Friday afternoon document dump, nary a peep was heard about the timing.

I think most people would agree that showing respect for a prisoner's religion is a good thing, but this isn't showing respect. This is groveling and kowtowing.

And as much as we like to think we're doing a better job with the MSM in this war versus Vietnam, they've finally found the issue to defeat us with from within: how we deal with prisoners. This Koran thing is the perfect follow up to Abu Gharib and is going a lot farther because of it. When the steely Secretary of State inexplicably wilts and bales over the "Holy Koran," things are going in the wrong direction. (Thank God Rummy hasn't lost it.)

Now we're going to spend another two weeks on this issue and further tell young recruits looking to serve that they can look forward to being hung out to dry for the least little infraction they commit using the judgment system of their enemy not their own country.

What our leaders should be doing is not worrying about the Muslim holy book called the Koran, but the other Muslim holy book called the terrorist manual. (I know, how can you tell the difference?) They should read from it to the MSM and the world how claiming abuse, and why claiming abuse, is what these vermin are trained to do.

19
posted on 06/04/2005 4:08:37 AM PDT
by Dahoser
("What'll it be Normie?" "Just the usual coach. I'll have a froth of beer and a snorkel.")

You know I seem to remember some years back , when the National Endowment for the Arts had an art exhibit in New York ,(using federal dollars), where a so called artist displayed a crucifixion of Christ submerged in a vat of urine . Where was the outrage then with the MSM , the ACLU and Amnesty International ??? Would those liberal groups get upset if the Koran were submerged in urine ??? YOU BET !!! So to all those bothered by the treatment of the vile Koran I say P!$$ on you and your KORAN !!! How do you like me now???

Let's understand what mishandling means. Under the rules the Pentagon later instituted at Guantanamo, proper handling of the Koran means using two hands and wearing gloves when touching it. Which means that if any guard held the Koran with one hand or had neglected to put on gloves, this would be considered mishandling. On the scale of human crimes, where, say, 10 is the killing of 2,973 innocent people in one day and 0 is jaywalking, this ranks as perhaps a 0.01.

WASHINGTON, June 3, 2005  The American public has more confidence in the military than in any other institution, according to a Gallup poll released this week. Seventy-four percent of those surveyed in Gallups 2005 confidence poll said they have a great deal or quite a lot of confidence in the military - more than in a full range of other government, religious, economic, medical, business and news organizations.

The poll, conducted between May 23 and 26, involved telephone interviews with a randomly selected sample of 1,004 people 18 and older, Gallup officials said. Those surveyed expressed strong confidence in the military, with 42 percent expressing a great deal of confidence in the military and 32 percent, quite a lot of confidence. Eighteen percent said they have some confidence, 7 percent, very little, and 1 percent, none.

Public confidence in the military jumped following the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and has remained consistently high, Gallup officials noted. The 2002 survey reflected a 13 percent increase in confidence in the military over the previous years poll. The public expressed a 79 percent high-confidence rate in the military in 2002, an 82 percent rate in 2003, and a 75 percent rate in 2004.

This years 74 percent confidence level exceeded that of all 15 institutions included in the 2005 survey. Police ranked second, with 63 percent of responders expressing a great deal or quite a lot of confidence in them. Organized religion rated third, with 53 percent of responders expressing high confidence, and banks rated a 49 percent high-confidence rate.

Health maintenance organizations bottomed out the list, with just 17 percent of responders expressing high confidence in them. Big business and Congress tied for the second- and third-lowest rankings, with 22 percent of responders expressing a great deal or quite a lot of confidence in them.

The Gallup organization noted that public trust in television news and newspapers reached an all-time low this year, with 28 percent of responders expressing high confidence in them.

I can't believe people in this country have so soon forgotten why we are fighting this war on terror. This koran business is ridiculous. What about the 3000 people who were incinerated on 9/11? What about the folks that had their heads cut off? A koran can be reprinted...the innoscent people murdered by terrorists cannot be. This is a side show perpetuated by the MSM to embolden our enemies and to try to win political points for appeasment types like J Kerry, Howard Dean and T Kennedy.

NEVER FORGET

26
posted on 06/04/2005 4:50:38 AM PDT
by Liberty Valance
(If you must filibuster, it's because you don't have the votes to win honestly)

Odd isn't it....Al Jareeza....can rally the Al Quaeda with numerous replays of beheadings of innocent victims, and the American Media, can also rally the Al Quaeda with numerous repetitive remarks about a Quran being Kicked.

Look we all know what this is about..The Anti Bush gang will do ANYTHING to discredit his administration ANYTHING .They will sell this country down the river , they will kiss the asses of the very bastards who would destroy them . It's sick and it's disgusting ..VER TWISTED..I assure you all the the Islamic fanatics have more respect for us here on FR than they do for the ACLU types..They LAUGH at the MSM and I'm sure they can't believe what morons they are , siding with their own enemies. I'm in NY City and I'm surrounded by these types. The same people who watched the trade Centers come down and watched bodies splat in the streets and here freaking out over some soldier kicking a Koran..Tell me how sick and insane that is ?? Personally I'm disgusted ..This country has gone mad. Maybe it really is the begining of the end.......

When one sees this sort of reporting day after day, one begins to think Alice In Wonderland was not really fiction.

So many of the people who make up the MSM and the Left are hopelessly twisted. To what extremes will they not go to discredit the military, undermine the War effort, and drive this Administration from power?

We are in a deju vu all over again from the anti-Vietnam War movement of the '60s and '70s. Same playbook, same people!

This "revelation" should be getting a big "so what" from everyone. Instead, while pausing on CNN during a channel-surf session last night, I heard the newsbabe describe it as "shocking." Shocking? Oh, please. As Krautheimer pointed out in one of his columns, they blow up MOSQUES, fer cryin' out loud! Not only are they killing fellow Muslims, but undoubtedly they're destroying Korans in the process! And where are the outcries?

(((crickets)))

34
posted on 06/04/2005 6:15:39 AM PDT
by MizSterious
(First, the journalists, THEN the lawyers.)

If ever there has been a temp test in a thimble it is the fuss over some guard at GTMO abusing the Koran. (The Koran should never be flushed down the toilet. It should be flushed down the toilet page by page as it is used.)

Next the muzlims will have their underwear all bunched up because I stuck out my tongue at a picture of Mohammad What'shost's.

Muzlims paint the American flag on the road and run cars over it and walk on it. Others burn the flag whenever they see a CNN camera swing they way. Crowds of men (Are there any Arab women?) jump up and down and chant hate slogans against America (they have too much time on their hands. Don't muzlims have jobs or hobbies?)

If ever there has been a temptest in a thimble it is the fuss over some guard at GTMO abusing the Koran. (The Koran should never be flushed down the toilet. It should be flushed down the toilet page by page as it is used.)

Next the muzlims will have their underwear all bunched up because I stuck out my tongue at a picture of Mohammad What's-his-face.

Muzlims paint the American flag on the road and run cars over it and walk on it. Others burn the flag whenever they see a CNN camera swing they way. Crowds of men (Are there any Arab women?) jump up and down and chant hate slogans against America (they have too much time on their hands. Don't muzlims have jobs or hobbies?)

Agreed on the most part, however you may be giving the MSM a little too much credit. I think each time they go off on a tangent like this, they are actually losing part of their own base. Every time I think the majority of the American public doesn't have the sense God gave a goat, they surprise me. Look at the the last two presidential elections. :)

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